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Livelihoods at risk in Philippines

After the storm

A typhoon survivor walks past debris and coconut shells which will be used for charcoal at a coconut farm in Tanuan, Leyte, central Philippines, Nov. 20, 2013 .

As Typhoon Haiyan tore across the eastern Philippines, coconut plantations older than the fathers of the men who tend them were smashed like matchsticks, while call centers that field customer service gripes from around the world fell silent.

After the storm

After the storm

High-heeled shoes are left on a desk at the damaged Expert Global Solutions call center in Palo, Leyte, central Philippines, Nov. 19, 2013.

The building wasn’t hit by Haiyan’s storm surge but monstrous winds peeled off iron-sheet roofing from the hangar-like structure as more than 500 people huddled within, leaving only the steel frame skeleton and soaking everything below. No one died on the premises of the company that had optimistically named itself Expert Global Solutions but some employees lost family.

Credit: Aaron Favila/AP

After the storm

Typhoon survivor Edgardo Sablay wipes his tears as he talks about his fears for his family at their makeshift house which he rebuilt after they were hit by Typhoon Haiyan in Tanuan, Leyte, central Philippines, Nov. 19, 2013.

Sablay climbs tall coconut trees to collect sap from the palm’s flowers for Tuba, or coconut sap wine. The coconut palm is known in the Philippines as the “tree of life” because every part of it has a use.

Fronds are used as roofing, husks as floor cleaner or charcoal, white flesh can be eaten or processed into oil, the sap makes wine. Flowering four times a year for a harvest every three months throughout the decades-long life of the trees, coconuts have long allowed millions of people across the country to make a living.